Tracy Robinson to Deliver Fall 2025 Gruber Distinguished Lecture in Women’s Rights

Gender equality and Caribbean constitutional law expert Tracy Robinson ’95 LLM will deliver the fall 2025 Gruber Distinguished Lecture in Women’s Rights. 

The lecture, “Attention to Gender in a Not-So-Righted Order,” will take place Oct. 20 at 4:30 p.m. in Room 120 of the Sterling Law Building. 

The event is open to the Yale community and Yale IDs will be required to enter the event. Email the Gruber Program at gruber.events@yale.edu to register by Oct. 14. The faculty host of the event is Clinical Professor of Law Claudia Flores.

Tracy Robinson is professor of law at The University of the West Indies, Mona. She has held visiting positions at NYU School of Law as a global professor of law, UPenn Carey Law School as the Bok Visiting International Professor, and at University of Toronto’s Faculty of Law as distinguished visiting faculty. At West Indies, she co-founded and coordinates the Faculty of Law UWI Rights Advocacy Project (U-RAP), which successfully led constitutional litigation in Belize and Guyana challenging the criminalization of LGBTQ people.

Robinson has authored and co-authored expert reports in the areas of gender-based violence, sexual harassment, sex work, corporal punishment, child support and family law reform. She has served as a consultant to international agencies such as U.N. Women and UNICEF, advising on legal and policy reform-related gender equality and children’s rights in the Caribbean. She is also a leading expert on Caribbean constitutional law. Her co-authored book, with Arif Bulkan and Adrian Saunders, “Fundamentals of Caribbean Constitutional Law” (2021) has been widely cited by first instance and appellate courts in at least 10 Caribbean countries, including the two apex courts in the English-speaking Caribbean.

In addition to her teaching and research, Robinson was a member of the Inter-American Commission (IACHR) from 2012 to 2015. She served as its president and was the inaugural Rapporteur of the Rights of LGBTI Persons and the Rapporteur on the Rights of Women. She was also one of three experts appointed to the U.N. Independent Fact-Finding Mission on Libya (2020–2023).

Robinson received her LL.B. from The University of the West Indies, Cave Hill with honors, a bachelor of civil law (B.CL.) in 1994 from Balliol College at Oxford University via the Jamaica Rhodes Scholarship, an LL.M. in 1995 from Yale Law School, and a certificate in legal education (CLE) in 1996 from Norman Manley Law School in Kingston, Jamaica. 

The Gruber Distinguished Lecture in Women’s Rights and the Gruber Distinguished Lecture in Global Justice feature speakers whose exceptional achievements have served the causes of global justice and women’s rights. The lecture is a core component of the Gruber Program for Global Justice and Women's Rights, a Yale University program administered by Yale Law School.